Looking out across the wasteland that has become the current state of hard rock and heavy metal, one quickly realizes that only a few armies of metal musicians are left standing today.
Consumer natural selection has already weeded out the cookie-cutter suburban rap-metal bands, Prozac and therapy sessions have killed off the depression/aggression Korn wannabes and the Nickelbacks, Stainds and Creeds have long since left the scene to whore out the remainder of their musical integrity in the crowded, cheap brothel known as pop music.
All that remain are the benefactors represented by the likes of Sevendust, the techno/metal industrialists such as Static-X and the multi-member battalions of masked nu-metal soldiers unfortunately defined by Slipknot.
In between these camps lies the Cleveland-based Mushroomhead, which thrives on the strengths of the survivors and spits in the faces of the vanquished. Composed of northern Ohio’s finest metal musicians, Mushroomhead was formed in the early ’90s as a side project for over a half-dozen musicians previously in local death-metal, speed-metal, funk-metal and industrial-metal bands.
In 1993, Mushroomhead became a full-time gig for its original seven members, flaunting a sound reminiscent of a cross between Faith No More and Nine Inch Nails. At this time, the members of Mushroomhead sought out their own costumes and masks to help hide the preconceptions that audiences might have for this group, knowing that each musician had previously come from a local, established band.
In 1995, as the band’s third indie release was nearing completion, Mushroomhead had successfully made a name for itself throughout Ohio as a fully charged, diversified metal unit with tracks just as hard-hitting as its stage show. This attention had attracted the likes of fledgling hard-rock label Roadrunner Records.
Refusing to come under the thumb of label executives, Mushroomhead declined all offers as a means to keep its independence. When Des Moines, Iowa’s, 10-piece masked-jumpsuit-metal gong show known as Slipknot exploded overnight on the metal scene in 1999 under Roadrunner, Mushroomhead couldn’t help but feel slightly betrayed.
With the live-show antics of both bands too similar for coincidence, the Ohio band cut its losses and adopted urban camouflage and homemade, stitched rag-doll masks. Keeping with its unique blend of metal, funk, rap and industrial music, Mushroomhead moved on and signed in 2000 with Universal Records.
After the release of its successful major-label debut XX and impressive runs on both the Ozzfest and Locobazooka tours, Mushroomhead returned to its local Cleveland studio in early 2003 to work 32-straight 15-hour days, only to turn around and personally drive its entire digital-recording setup in less than two days via van to Los Angeles in order to complete mixing for its latest release XIII in a “beat-the-clock” fashion. The result: an album as tight, cohesive and self-contained as the band itself.
Once again melding the darkest aural elements of death metal with the constantly changing exotic time signatures of progressive metal and the syncopated rhythmic variations of funk and blues, Mushroomhead proves it is back to its trademark style, and this time it means business. From the opening, spastic track “Kill Tomorrow” it is evident that all eight members (two vocalists, two seven-string guitarists, one bassist, one drummer, a keyboardist and a sample manipulator) had a vital role in the creation of this album.
In its first single, “Sun Doesn’t Rise,” Mushroomhead demonstrates the true potential and strength of possessing two vocalists of opposing styles. With the hard-hitting shredding of guitarists Bronson and Gravy and the polyrhythmic complexity of Skinny’s drumming driving the track, Jeffrey Nothing is given the opportunity to project his piercing falsetto harmonic vocals in a call-and-response with J. Mann’s juxtaposing in-your-face abrasive rap attacks.
Slowing down just enough for Mann to present a gritty spoken-word chorus alongside the atmospheric keyboard pads of Shmotz, Mushroomhead exposes its softer (relatively speaking) side with the epic “Nowhere to Go.”
With the fuzz-infused, roadhouse-blues style of “Almost Gone,” Mann and Nothing face off again as the former blasts an intense staccato chorus reminiscent of rhythmic hip-hop turntable scratching while the latter lays a funky, flowing groove verse.
Just as the echoes of the soothing, instrumental, country-esque guitar, keyboard and sample comedown of the self-titled track 13 fade off, the listener is given the biggest surprise of the album from the hidden track.
It’s not every day that a balls-to-the-wall metal outfit gives an impish nod to the mid-’90s artist of the hour Seal and his popular smash hit “Crazy.” The talented and eclectic nature of this band really comes through in its re-interpretation of this lost but certainly not forgotten gem.
If you’re looking for one of the best metal albums of the last four years, get XIII. Straying from the repetitive monotonous nature of its fellow metal soldiers while never once engaging in the alienating, expletive, finger-pointing screaming fests of its Iowan counterparts, Mushroomhead proves it is one of the most intelligently artistic metal bands ever.
Keeping its music fresh and the “Parental Advisory” sticker off its album cover, this Cleveland band is worth a listen even if you’re not into the dark imagery associated with the majority of hard rock today. Tossing the masks and costumes aside, these guys aer really in it for the music. XIII is a product of hard work, not luck.
Grade: A